Chapter Ten
"Who are you?" Jeff demanded to know.
"That," Tin-Tin stated, boldly stepping forward to stand next to Brains, who was now cradling a completely still and unconscious Kyrano in his arms, "is my half-uncle."
"What?" Alan breathed, immediately moving to her side.
"Niece," the bald man said evenly with a nod of his head. "How you've grown. So lovely. Just like your mother."
Tin-Tin's face was as stone. Her eyes were round as saucers, but she made no reply.
Brains swallowed hard. "What have you done to Kyrano?" he asked.
The bald man laughed out loud. "I have done nothing, scientist, save exist." He looked over his shoulder where his demon princess glared at those around them. "But I can, if you wish."
Backing up several steps until he bumped into the wall, Brains shook his head, clutching Kyrano to himself even more tightly. Jeff, Scott, Virgil and John filled in the space between the two half-brothers as Gordon came to Alan's side. Penelope and Parker moved into position next to Jeff, guns raised.
"So," Penelope said flatly. "The man I know as the Hood is Kyrano's half-brother."
Jeff turned to stare at her wide-eyed.
"Not that this information will do you any good now," the Hood responded with a deferential nod, "but yes."
"Sonofabitch," Alan cursed quietly, hand moving to grasp Tin-Tin's. She squeezed his back so hard he thought all the bones might just break.
"I have been called worse," the Hood stated, then looked up at the demon again. "I have new work for you."
She bowed before him. "I am yours to command, Induk."
"Master?" Tin-Tin repeated the word in English. "Oh, no."
Alan looked sharply at her, wondering what she was thinking. What it was she knew that the rest of them did not.
The smile that distorted the Hood's face made the blood of every member of International Rescue run cold. Gordon poked Alan's ribs, then whispered into his ear, "We need to keep Kyrano away from him."
Alan nodded as Gordon slid away from his side. The aquanaut grabbed hold of Brains' arm and pulled him, with Kyrano, back out into the observation room. Shortly thereafter, Alan saw Brains nod and scurry out of the observation room with Gordon on his heels. The hiss of the sliding door was covered by the demonic laugh coming from inside the hospital room. Alan turned his attention back to the spectacle of something he never knew existed outside of fairy tales, but now stood before them larger than life.
"Parker," Penelope said, voice as hard as quadritanium.
"Yes, milady," Parker replied.
Without warning the two fired their laser pistols.
The Hood's hands went up even as the demon screeched and the young woman darted back into the room in a blind panic. Tin-Tin caught her and shoved her behind John and Virgil. The laser shots bounced away from the Hood's hands. His low, menacing laugh was the backdrop to the sound of the demon's wings unfurling, smashing lights and cabinets and banging holes into the concrete walls as she turned in a full circle.
The humans all ducked to avoid being hit. John turned, grabbed his grandmother, the victim they'd rescued and Tin-Tin and started herding them out of the room.
"No!" Tin-Tin protested while Alan tried pushing her out, too. "I have to help!"
"If he gets his hands on you," Alan said, heart clenching at the thought, meeting her flashing green eyes.
The demon charged forward. Everyone backed up further and further until they managed to squeeze through the door, eyes never leaving the winged creature headed their way. Penny and Parker kept firing to no avail.
When the demon couldn't get through the doorway to reach them, she simply smashed through. Sparks flew as electrical lines were cut, the lights flickering and then going out altogether.
All members of International Rescue turned on their watch lights. An eerie glow and silence descended. The victim whimpered from behind John, where Ruth's arms were holding her tight.
Alan's blood curdled when Tin-Tin pulled away from his grasp and stepped forward, right to the front of the oddly-shaped triangle of Tracys. She raised her hands in the air as Alan whispered fiercely, "Tin-Tin!"
"Ah, I see you think you can do battle with me." The Hood stepped around his demon, holding a hand up to stay her. "Child," he tsked, shaking his head at his half-niece, "you are no match for the powers from beyond. Your father never was, either."
"Perhaps not," she said evenly, strongly. Alan felt a zap of pride go through him. "But I think I know how to slow you down at least."
Alan frowned.
The Hood cocked his head. "Do you, now?" He took a step forward. Alan moved protectively to her side. "And how, pray tell, might you do so when I have a demon princess at my command?"
She smiled in a way Alan had never seen her smile before. It made his heart stutter as it hit home who the love of his life was related to. He swallowed hard.
"Even demons," Tin-Tin replied, "can be banished."
The Hood laughed.
The demon snarled.
Scott moved to stand on Tin-Tin's other side, flanked by Virgil. John, Jeff, Parker and Penny formed a second row. The doors behind them which led to Brains' laboratory swished open when the auxiliary power kicked in and the lights flickered back on. Gordon and Brains stole into the room, Gordon quickly handing everyone a weapon before coming to stand by Penny's side.
Brains walked up to the front of the group, swallowing hard, blocking Tin-Tin and her raised hands. "What are you doing?" she hissed. "Get out of my way!"
Alan saw, as he was sure everyone did, that Brains held something in his arms. Something he recognized from last week's Scientific Show-and-Tell as they called it, when Brains had shared a new invention with them all. Alan's mind raced as he tried figuring out what the hell Brains meant to do with it.
What could a modified hybrid nuclear-thermophotovoltaic generator do here and now?
Generator.
Alan's eyes widened.
Electricity.
He quickly put his hands on Tin-Tin's arms to force them to lower. She opened her mouth to protest but he shook his head, eyes darting to Brains and back to hers. She stilled as her eyes rested on the invention she herself had been helping Brains fine-tune. The smile that had been on her face, that had been starting to scare Alan out of his wits, faded. It was replaced by a smile of knowing.
"Weapons ready," Jeff said, and Alan knew he'd figured it out as well.
They all raised the laser and machine pistols and rifles Gordon had handed out.
"You fools," the Hood chided, taking one more step forward and standing so close to Brains he could've spit on him without effort. "Your weapons are useless against us." His eyes moved to the milk crate-sized contraption in Brains' arms. "And what can a ridiculous metal box do to me?" he asked, reaching out to poke the shiny silver exterior as his eyes roved up the single antenna that protruded from the top of it.
"This," Brains replied, his voice shaking as much as he was. He pressed a button on the back, where the Hood couldn't see, and the NT machine came to life with a high-pitched whine that pierced the eardrums of everyone present. That, the entire reason it hadn't been accepted in its current form, shattered what little glass had remained intact in the observation and hospital rooms.
Everyone covered their ears except for Brains, who stood steadfast, no longer shaking, but instead staring at the man whose finger was now, quite literally, glued to the metal box by the most formidable mixture of gravity and electricity on Earth. The Hood's body vibrated as the machine sent powerful waves of electricity into his body through that small point of contact…electrocuting him in a most agonizingly slow way thanks to the artificial gravity also pulling him forward.
Brains was pushed a step back by the force of it. Only because of his jerky movements did Alan realize Brains was wearing a short-sleeved shirt. Meaning his bare arms as well as his hands were touching the box. Meaning—
"NO!" Alan yelled, firing at the Hood and simultaneously wrenching the box from Brains' grasp. His gun clattered to the floor as he felt the electricity enfold him, envelop him. He tried forcing his way through it to separate Brains from the box.
The demon roared as Alan felt his heart flop all over the place. As the female victim screamed. As everyone started yelling.
Then the box was gone from his grasp. He was just conscious enough to see that Scott had grabbed it away from him as Brains was being pulled away by Gordon and John, then turned and hurled it toward the demon right when the bullet Alan had fired hit the Hood square in the center of his chest. He went down but tried to get right back up while a white-hot bolt of lightning expanded and enveloped the demon.
Virgil ran forward, grabbed the Hood with both hands, lifted him from the floor as he bellowed in Malay, and launched him at the cocooned demon. With a blinding flash, the demon and the Hood disappeared.
Alan felt Tin-Tin take his hand as a very wobbly Kyrano appeared in the lab doorway. Tears shone in her eyes as she turned to look up at her father. "Is he gone?"
A deep, shaky breath and a small nod of his head was all her father could offer. Alan managed to get to a sitting position with Tin-Tin's help while Virgil and Scott roused the engineer who'd saved the day. When Brains' eyes blinked open, Alan smiled. But it was only when the girl...the strawberry-blonde-headed victim...knelt at Brains' side, that Brains smiled back.